All Kira Mather wanted was to buy the perfect birthday gift for her husband. When her sister-in-law takes her to the old North Boston Calvinist Church, currently being demolished to make room for a condominium project, she had no idea her husband was a descendent of Cotton Mather, the fabled witch trial crusader from the mid 1600s. When the demolition contractor presents an ancient, chain-locked trunk discovered during demolition, the ladies decide this would be the perfect gift for Kira's husband, Professor Aldo Mather, a lover of antiquity and a huge fan of mystery. Prof. Mather, an avowed Athiest, disbelieves Kira's assertion that something dangerous lives within the centuries old box. He presents the box to his university class in an effort to once again disprove the existence of a spiritual realm. What happens next will forever altar his perceptions.THE BIRTHDAY BOX by Thomas Holladay is pretty much all setup, ending as soon as the action begins. Imagine the movie, The Possesion, with the dybbuk box, rolling the credits as soon as the box begins to open. I am so disappointed the author decided to end the story this way.
I think Holladay has a great idea, with some intriguiging characters (the family history with Cotton Mathers is a fantastic hook), but he chose the wrong format. This plot deserves a full-length novel, instead of a being reduced to a short story.
As always,
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